1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power supply control apparatus and a power supply control method, and more particularly to a power supply control apparatus which controls turn-on/turn-off of a main power supply, and a power supply control method for the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in an audio-visual apparatus such as a television receiver or a VCR, or a power apparatus such as an air conditioning apparatus, turn-on/turn-off of the power supply (main power supply) is controlled by using a remote controller. Under such conditions, recently, many techniques for improving the energy consumption efficiency, or attaining energy saving have been proposed. As a technique for saving a wasted electric power in a standby period of a remote control signal, for example, a standby power supply circuit comprising switching means, controlling means (a relay coil), a microcomputer, a solar battery, and the like has been proposed (for example, JP-UM-A-5-80077). In the technique of Patent Reference 1, a circuit system including the controlling means, a remote control receiver, and the microcomputer is powered by electric energy converted by the solar battery.
In order to save electric energy, a power-saving apparatus in which standby power of an electronic circuit for receiving a signal from a remote controller is saved, and a power-saving battery circuit is operated by a solar battery has been proposed (for example, JP-A-2000-232730). In the technique of JP-A-2000-232730, in order to attain power saving, the solar battery, an electric double layer capacitor, a latching relay, and the like are used.